A few years ago, I was sitting in the London Library researching a book about blind people across the ages. As a semi-blind person myself, I sighed at the lack of women, other than the endlessly chipper Helen Keller, who never had a bad day. Ever.
My sister, however, drew my attention to a two-line wiki entry for the 18th-century composer, singer and professor — and darling of the Viennese musical court — Maria Theresia von Paradis (1759–1824).
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Watch The Making of Paradis, a documentary about the opera The Paradis Files, on 25 September at 7 p.m. at the Tête à Tête opera festival’s website: www.tete-a-tete.org.uk/event/the-paradis-files/
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